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Though certainly, this season succeded in doing a higher quality recreation of the source material, I believe this is where it's success ends. However, this is just because I am not a fan of Minagoroshi-hen and Matsuribayashi-hen. They just do not fit. Why should the show change from a beautiful mystery, horror, and just sheer amazing experience, into this action packed piece of WHAT. There is simply no reason that suddenly these two worlds end up perfectly. They just DO. Yes, I know Berkanstel visits Akasaka and all. I don't care. It's a very cop out ending.

Minagoroshi-hen begins to fail already when everybody starts to remember everything. No, they don't remember as clearly as Keiichi does in the epic Tsumihoroboshi-hen scene where he remembers killing Rena and Mion. But, just, all effect is lost when suddenly it's happening to everybody. I was absoultely in shock when Keiichi remembers in Tsumihoroboshi-hen. However, in Minagoroshi-hen, it turns into whoops somebody else is remember something that will make us inevitably avoid a disaster! Wow! I started to lose interest. Keiichi pulling everybody together was easy to get tired of. Certainly it was nice to see Teppei overcome, but the process was not satisfying. The ending is standard fare. Everybody dies. I was happy to hear the old main theme arranged into piano when Keiichi died, though. That was pretty. Oh well nothing else important.

Takano and Friends was important background which dragged if you knew it like I did, but this isn't any fault. It could perhaps have been placed better, or maybe could have been shortened some, but it's the way it was in the game, I guess. No complaints here, except for the fact it has completely removed the mystery which was one of the single most pulling factors of the first season. Whoops, suddenly, we're looking at some kind of action show! Tomitake fighting people on cars! Random bs! Wars with gunz and stuff, yo! What the heck is this doing in Higurashi? I don't know! Whatever. Hanyuu standing up to Takano with the bullet and all was awesome, and seeing Takano FINALLY break down and cry was perhaps something finally ending. I like that scene, it's well done. How it comes about is a train-wreck.

And thus,
Animation Quality: 8. It was good most of the way, save for the end. It got bad then.
Voice Actors: 10. They really did their job. In particular, I love Takano's VA to death.
Script: 3. Sorry.
Emotional Involvement: 3. I was bored. A few good scenes in a pile of boring garbage.

Overall: 4.5/10. I dislike it heavily and personally recommend a fan of the first season to pretend this does not exist. Nothing on the level of the final climax of Tsumihoroboshi-hen. Can you imagine Keiichi's shock when he realizes he has killed Mion and Rena? I think the manga does it pretty well.

I agree with almost all of what you said, but I still enjoyed Kai. Just not "OMGLOVED" it like I did season one. Season one caused me to go to work two days in a row on two hours of sleep each. Kai was more like when I remembered to watch it, but it wasn't painful by any means.

Except maybe the ending... but that's a horse that's been beaten to death.

It's very rare to get decent answers in anime mystery. Anime mystery tend to have the attitude that the initial questions (in other words, trying to get the audience intrigued) are far more important that putting respectable answers to those questions. Answers in anime tend to be either underwhelming (Noir) or not really well thought through (Myself; Yourself). And that's in those cases where we get them at all (Fate/Stay Night, Touka Gettan, hell, pick a mystery anime at random, it'll almost certainly have unanswered questiosn).

That's why Higurashi Kai is such a breath of fresh air in that respect.

A mystery isn't very good if it doesn't have an answer. Let's not have Higurashi like LOST where it drags its mysteries on forever without ever giving you solid answers.

Eh, there's nothing wrong with Higurashi's "answer." The conclusion of the mystery is fine. There's everything wrong with how damn easy it suddenly became--with Takano, once so strong and confident, suddenly becoming an ineffectual limp dick of a villain and the Yamainu getting their asses kicked by a bunch of kids, and all the comedic-action sequences that just totally destroyed the dark, moody, serious atmosphere the series had going for it.

I'm of the opinion that if Higurashi had a "bad ending" it would have worked with the story pretty well.

Honestly, I still believe a good deal of the answer is obtainable even from the questionable season 1. Or at least, most of the main details. If you somehow got the significance of the syringes, and the disease and all, kudos to you. However, one thing is made very obvious in season 1: Takano is the villan. This is simply the key detail, and though it might be difficult to fully get everything from this, the military takeover in arc 3 shows something is wrong quite easily, and from the inconsistancy of the Sonozaki families actions (Mion constantly claims to be able to do nothing but also do a lot with the curse) show a lot of what you think is going on is just a lie.

It is nice to see Rika and friends get a good end, I just think Ryukishi07 wrote himself into a corner.

Eh, there's nothing wrong with Higurashi's "answer." The conclusion of the mystery is fine. There's everything wrong with how damn easy it suddenly became--with Takano, once so strong and confident, suddenly becoming an ineffectual limp dick of a villain and the Yamainu getting their asses kicked by a bunch of kids, and all the comedic-action sequences that just totally destroyed the dark, moody, serious atmosphere the series had going for it.

Takano's success was a mirror of the old saying "A succesful career comes from a string of little successful events". Her confidence came that all his plans were carried out with the precision of a Bach fugue. Exact, rhytmic, every passage was the logical continuation of the previous one . You can also see from the pieces that she is quick to lose confidence and become depressed when things don't go her way, as what was happening moments before her first meeting with Nomura (not to mention she was borderline lvl 5 ATM). The series of failures that started to take place in Matsuribayashi undermined her confidence and the stability of her planning, and her natural inability to improvise surfaced. I don't really see how that is off character.

seeing Takano FINALLY break down and cry was perhaps something finally ending. I like that scene, it's well done. How it comes about is a train-wreck.

Amen.

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Eh, there's nothing wrong with Higurashi's "answer." The conclusion of the mystery is fine. There's everything wrong with how damn easy it suddenly became--with Takano, once so strong and confident, suddenly becoming an ineffectual limp dick of a villain and the Yamainu getting their asses kicked by a bunch of kids, and all the comedic-action sequences that just totally destroyed the dark, moody, serious atmosphere the series had going for it.

What he said. I cannot fathom how anyone could feel any tension whatsoever in the final episodes, even my cat would have guessed that no one would be hurt and there would be an utterly and totally happy end.

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It is nice to see Rika and friends get a good end, I just think Ryukishi07 wrote himself into a corner.

He(?) sure did.

As for Takano, once someone mentioned that the mastermind was one of the characters we have seen quite often in the anime - well, no one was even close in fishyness to Takano, so she was an obvious choice. That said, by anime standards it was an awesome mystery, even though you had to rely so much on tips and other pieces not present in the anime itself.

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I love Takano's VA to death.

Good, I thought I was the only one who did that.

__________________

'The world we live in is always in darkness.'
'Yes, and that is why we seek light.'

As for Takano, once someone mentioned that the mastermind was one of the characters we have seen quite often in the anime - well, no one was even close in fishyness to Takano, so she was an obvious choice.

Before the answer arcs you could fall into the obvious mislead and think the Sonozaki's were the masters of all what is evil

Still, one way to explain the overcoming of Rule X in the final chapters would be the eventual reward the characters get after their continuous learning, even if it was a painful trial and error, in every world. Every character close to Rika having an inconcious, inherited, weak yet accumulated experience. Cheesy and convenient? Yes, but then again world resets are as well. That was you can just blame quantics physics and the messy multiverses it introduces or something akin.

Takano's actually a good antagonist type. The problem wasn't that she broke down--adding a human element to an evil character is always a welcome thing. The problem was that she started losing it a little too soon, and her loss of control became a self-fulfilling prophecy. Had she been able to hold together and rely more on her own abilities and less on the totally useless Yamainu, she might have won.

Also, I actually did think Oryou was behind it all for a while, especially during Watanagashi-hen and Meakashi-hen. But Takano's creepy-condescending voice just told me that she was up to no good. I was a little disappointed when the Sonozaki family turned out NOT to be the enemy. Oryou is a damn awesome antagonist.

The most damning evidence against Takano is the burning of "her" body - there is no need to do that with a convenient swamp around and the body was found out too often to be a random, one in a thousand, error by the evil guys.

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Takano's actually a good antagonist type. The problem wasn't that she broke down--adding a human element to an evil character is always a welcome thing. The problem was that she started losing it a little too soon, and her loss of control became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Very true.

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You can also see from the pieces that she is quick to lose confidence and become depressed when things don't go her way

She was calm and cool as the Snow Queen in ep.13, though, despite the protagonists managing to overpower several of the Yamainu.

__________________

'The world we live in is always in darkness.'
'Yes, and that is why we seek light.'

Oh well maybe I can be labeled as being too simple. But after watching these characters struggle and die for so long I was hoping they'd find a way to get out of it alive. Thus when they did I was ok with that.

Do have complete respect for Satoko's ability to create traps that can cause serious damage. Thanks to Klashikari's blog and the tips that especially hit home.